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Salakand
Bandagora's oldest feudal kingdom in and to the south of the Great Forest with coasts facing the Inner Sea and the Bay of Hadriel. Salaqi territory includes a few islands in the Inner Sea, most notable the prison island Dorkis. Salakand borders on Rovia, the Arhana elves, El-Ya and Eyronia. The capital is Ployd, and the second largest city is Lisuart. Maps IV , V (and VII ) (the shire of Salmynia I-e). History: Salakand was founded in 103 by dissidents from the Sun Lands with the capital Brin Lebin. In 135 Ployd joined Salakand, and the city was made capital 257. Brin Lebin was sacked by the Thungali in 292 and is insignificant today. In 356 Forklon and Lisuart became part of Salakand. Salakand has never gained territory through wars of expansion, but has grown by absorbing neighbors. This was due to its constitution, that, inspired by the Island Concord, defined the country more or less as a defensive alliance. According to the constitution, the king is weak in times of peace, and strong in times of war. In peaceful times, the king (rex) was merely the greatest noble. He only ruled the land in his personal demesne and had no jurisdiction elsewhere. This made Salakand a country allowing different cultures and types of government to co-exist. If at least every tenth among the heads of nobility agreed that war was impending, the king (dux) was given almost absolute power to lead the country in war. This dual role of the king meant that Salakand was able to defend itself effectively, but that the army was not the personal tool of the king. This constitution remained a success for over 800 years, and Salakand can be said to have pioneered the feudal system copied by most other states. Historians have pondered how a country split in two by the Great Forest could remain a single unit. But Salakand has been one of the most stable nations in Bandagoran history. Though not formally revoked, the constitution has been disabled by the so-called Two Hundred Years War, making the king a permanent dictator. Salakand has become a more centrally governed state. Paradoxically, this has made the interior and less settled parts of the country more autonomous. No cartographer would swear by Ormazda that he knew the exact outline of the Salaqi border. The king's attention has been turned to the populated coastal parts of Salakand. The cities and the coastal strips are well regulated, and the local populace shows healthy respect for law enforcement. Another effect of the Two Hundred Years War has been an increasing dislike of elves. In the early history of Salakand, the Great Forest was a symbol of freedom. The freedom to leave whatever oppressed you and settle in the Forest on your own. But during the Nomad Invasions and later during the Kangrisorn Wars Salakand's oversea trade increased heavily. The cities grew, and lumber for shipbuilding was in demand. But soon the non-elven parts of the Great Forest seemed remote and inaccessible. Lumbering was easy on the river Perdigor, but the elves would not allow this. And the elves were, at least when in the Forest, far better warriors than the Salaqi. So the Salaqi felt walled in and humiliated by the elves. In the 11th century a rumor spread that the elves had caused Perdigor to flood in 348 to drown Salaqi lumberjacking villages. Rulers of the Tarnlas dynasty established militia units to 'guard' certain area from the elves. There has been no regular war against the elves, perhaps because the elves are strong, perhaps because elves are entitled to live in the Great Forest according to the Salaqi constitution. But newly ennobled officers were given land "not originally part of the Great Forest, but land later grown over with trees". Legal system. The feudal system of Salakand is by and large equal to that of Penboyn. In Salakand, as in most other places, the punishment for lese majesty is the death penalty. But here it has been customary that a so-called reliable witness is enough to carry out the sentence. In Salakand torture is an accepted means of obtaining confessions. Everybody involved in a major crime (suspect or not) may expect their statements to be confirmed by torture. Though Salakand currently functions as a simple feudal kingdom, it has a vastly more complicated government structure more or less permanently put on hold by the Two Hundred Years War. In times of peace (which there has been none of since 931), Salakand is a confederacy made of from a patchwork of regions ranging in size from townships to duchies comparable in size and power to a smallish kingdom such as Donara. In peacetime, the king's role is to be the day-to-day head of state and moderator of any internal squabbles, but any laws or policies are decided by parliament. The parliament is simply a meeting of the nobles, and can occur anywhere. When Salakand was founded in 103, the nobles had no titles and served as a sort of representatives with a number of votes corresponding to their mandate. A mandate was given for each banner or knight the noble represented. A banner equaled the ability to muster roughly 80 capable men (yeomen or militia, not a standing army) on short notice, whereas a knight was supposed to have a retinue of 12 trained soldiers ready at all times. Later, parliament voted to also count burgomasters, heads of priesthoods, and even powerful wizards as mandates. In 315, King Ramus suggested a reform so that a few populous regions would not dominate the numerous smaller regions. Though the underlying principle of the mandate was kept, it now transformed into a ranking system of nobles, creating four tiers, corresponding to lord, baron, count, and duke.